USPS offers pictorial first-day postmark for Alzheimer’s semipostal

By Michael Baadke

The United States Postal Service has released details for ordering first-day covers for the nondenominated (49¢+11¢) Alzheimer’s semipostal stamp issued Nov. 30 at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, Md. Ordering instructions for the Alzheimer’s first-day cancel were also provided.

The first-day covers can be purchased as USPS item 564216 from Stamp Fulfillment Services for $1.04 plus shipping by calling 1-800-782-6724. The FDC product was not immediately available on the Postal Service’s online Postal Store.

The Postal Service has created a black pictorial cancel for the first-day covers.

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Along with large lettering spelling out “Alzheimer’s” and smaller text for the date, city of issue and “first day of issue” message, the postmark shows a right-facing silhouette of an older individual, similar to the Alzheimer’s patient depicted in artist Matt Mahurin’s illustration on the stamp.

Collectors can order the pictorial first-day cancel for their own prepared covers by following the instructions in the box on this page.

The Postal Service did not create a first-day cover with digital color postmark for this issue, nor is there a press sheet of the Alzheimer’s stamp being offered.

Among the featured speakers at the Nov. 30 first-day ceremony was USPS Postmaster General and CEO Megan J. Brennan.

“Through our stamp program, we choose topics that elevate our common understanding, broaden our shared perspective, and focus our attention on important public issues,” Brennan said. “There are few topics more personal and vital to our well-being than the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.”

Other ceremony participants included U.S. Rep. Elijah J. Cummings; Dr. Marie A. Bernard, deputy director of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health; Dr. Constantine G. Lyketsos, director of the Memory and Alzheimer’s Treatment Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; Dr. Richard Bennett, president of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; and Kathy Siggins of Mount Airy, Md., who submitted a request for an Alzheimer’s semipostal following the USPS discretionary semipostal program guidelines. Siggins’ husband died of Alzheimer’s disease in 1999.